Wearable X’s ‘smart’ new Yoga pant is aimed at the guys

A lot has been said about the coming future of wearables, but, it turned out, not a heck of a lot took off. It seemed most of us were happy with ‘wearing’ a smartwatch and leaving it at that. In fact, Apple’s recent announcements around the Apple Watch show that ‘wearables’ are not really about just wearing something with electronics embedded, but really about health.

Now, we know that the home fitness market and wellness market is not going anywhere. And yet we still have an obesity issue in the world. What if what we wore could help us with that, while we exercise?

That’s the idea behind Wearable X, the New York-based startup which launched last year with the “Nadi X”. This is a collection of smart yoga apparel with woven-in technology. They claim this can identify the various yoga poses and provide users with real-time feedback via gentle vibrations. Nadi X comes with a companion iPhone app and device, called The Pulse. The Pulse is where the battery and Bluetooth module clips behind the upper left knee so as not to interfere with your yoga practice.

The company is now launching a Kickstarter campaign for four new designs, including a menswear line and redesigned user-friendly app with enhanced features.

Founder & CEO Billie Whitehouse says: “With Nadi X you not only have convenience but haptics increase reaction time and make you feel more accountable not only through the instant reaction but also through the progress tracking. Our data is more sophisticated than most because we have 5 data points. Most only have one. Single data is what I call ‘dirty data’. It’s just not a thorough look at the true movements that are taking place.”

The new features include progress tracking, customizable playlist “yoga flows” whereby the user can create a truly personalized practice and yoga practice incentives. It’s notable that last year yoga pants outsold denim worldwide.